Giants owner singles out offense, calls it 'broken' after down year

The Giants offense seems to be squarely in the owner's sights as the offseason approaches.

(Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)

John Mara said that the Giants offense, the one that finished 28th in yards per game, 28th in points per game, 19th in passing yardage and 29th in rushing, was "broken" and placed it atop his to-do list this offseason.

"I think our offense is broken right now and we need to fix that," Mara said. "We need to make some improvements on defense, too, but obviously the offensive side of the ball, we have to improve there. We can't go into next season with the same personnel."

Mara went on to say that the offensive line was his biggest concern heading into the season, one that was only exacerbated after Chris Snee and David Baas were injured. The patchwork unit led to a career high in sacks and interceptions for Eli Manning.

"I was concerned about the depth we had there and once we had the center and Chris Snee hurt right off the bat, the backup center gets hurt and we just were never able to protect Eli well enough," Mara said. "That, to me, is the No. 1 personnel priority going into the offseason."

Still, the owner seemed to be upset about the unit as a whole, and appeared to offer some veiled criticisms of offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride despite the fact that, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, no coaches have been informed of their dismissal today.

Those people requested anonymity in order to speak freely on the matter.

"I'm not sure why it took us three years to find out Jerrel Jernigan could play," he said while defending the Giants' draft record over the past few years. "We finally put him in a game and we saw that he could play. You have those instances as well."

When asked who is at fault for not putting players like Jernigan into the game, Mara had this:

"Sometimes you have to put younger players in a game and give them a chance to fail, or succeed." Mara said. "It's true not only of him but of other guys as well. It would have been nice if he had gotten in a little sooner. That's not my decision."

And then there was this, when asked about Hakeem Nicks' struggles this season:

"We had so many issues on offense, it's hard to just pin anything on (Nicks)," Mara said. "It was not his best year, but he competed hard. It's shocking to me that he didn't get into the end zone this year, but he still was out there trying to make plays. Again, we had a lot of problems on offense."

And then there was this, when he was asked about Mike Sullivan, Eli Manning's former quarterbacks coach who was let go in Tampa Bay this morning.

"That's a topic of discussion with Tom and Jerry," Mara said. "We obviously think very highly of him. But that has yet to be discussed."

This could all be some day-after frustration, of course. There is a reason Mara and general manager Jerry Reese wait at least a day or two before making some serious decisions. But as of right now, the offense seems to be the main culprit following a 7-9 season.

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